Air pollution, now the worldâ€™s single largest environmental risk

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The World Health Organization today released mortality data from 2012 estimating that around 7 million people (one person in eight) died globally that year as a result of air pollution exposure. This finding more than doubles previous estimates and confirms that air pollution is now the worldâ€™s largest single environmental health risk.

The World Health Organization
today released mortality data from 2012 estimating that around 7 million people
(one person in eight) died globally that year as a result of air pollution
exposure. This finding more than doubles previous estimates and confirms that
air pollution is now the worldâ€™s largest single environmental health risk.

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In particular, the new data
reveal a stronger link between both indoor and outdoor air pollution exposure and
cardiovascular diseases, such as strokes and ischaemic heart disease, as well
as between air pollution and cancer. This is in addition to air pollution's
role in the development of respiratory diseases, including acute respiratory
infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.

The new estimates are not only
based on more knowledge about the diseases caused by air pollution, but also
upon better assessment of human exposure to air pollutants through the use of
improved measurements and technology. This has enabled scientists to make a
more detailed analysis of health risks from a wider demographic spread that now
includes rural as well as urban areas.

Regionally, low- and
middle-income countries in the WHO South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions
had the largest air pollution-related burden in 2012, with a total of 3.3
million deaths linked to indoor air pollution and 2.6 million deaths related to
outdoor air pollution.

"Cleaning up the air we breathe
prevents noncommunicable diseases as well as reduces disease risks among women
and vulnerable groups, including children and the elderly," says Dr Flavia
Bustreo, WHO Assistant Director-General Family, Women and Children's Health.
"Poor women and children pay a heavy price from indoor air pollution since they
spend more time at home breathing in smoke and soot from leaky coal and wood
cook stoves."

Included in the assessment is a
breakdown of deaths attributed to specific diseases, underlining that the vast
majority of air pollution deaths are due to cardiovascular diseases as follows:

Outdoor air pollution-caused
deaths â€“ breakdown by disease:

40%
â€“ ischaemic heart disease;

40%
â€“ stroke;

11%
â€“ chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD);

6%
- lung cancer; and

3%
â€“ acute lower respiratory infections in children.

Indoor air pollution-caused
deaths â€“ breakdown by disease:

34%
- stroke;

26%
- ischaemic heart disease;

22%
- COPD;

12%
- acute lower respiratory infections in children; and

6%
- lung cancer.

Estimates of people's exposure to
outdoor air pollution in different parts of the world were formulated through a
new global data mapping. This incorporated satellite data, ground-level
monitoring measurements and data on pollution emissions from key sources, as
well as modeling of how pollution drifts in the air.